SAG-AFTRA’s Duncan Crabtree-Ireland On The State Of Negotiations With Video Game Industry & Possible Strike: “We’re Getting To The End Of The Road”

deadline.com:

Will Hollywood experience another actors strike in the coming months? After more than a year of negotiating with the video game companies on a new Interactive Media Agreement, SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland indicated the guild might soon be walking away from the table due to sticking points regarding artificial intelligence. “We have strike authorization on that contract and it is, at this point, at least 50/50, if not more likely, that we end up going on strike…in the next four to six weeks because of the inability to get past these basic AI issues,” he said during a conversation with Brendan Vaughan, Editor-in-Chief of Fast Company, at SXSW focused on the intersection of Hollywood and AI.

In September, members overwhelmingly authorized a strike authorization on this current contract. This is talk of another strike comes on the heels of the actors’ 118-day work stoppage last year to achieve the latest film and TV contract, which did manage several gains when it comes to language regulating artificial intelligence.

Many of the issues between the two contracts are similar, including wages and AI. Following the panel, Crabtree-Ireland spoke with Deadline about the state of negotiations on the Interactive Media Agreement and how imminent a strike may actually be. DEADLINE: You mentioned that some “basic AI issues” were the current sticking points in the video game negotiations.

Can you expand upon what those issues are? DUNCAN CRABTREE-IRELAND: I think some of them are very similar [to the film and TV contract issues], but I think the one that I mentioned [that is different], is applying AI protections to creature performers and other types of movement performers that don’t have lines.